KABUL

- A suicide bombing at the entrance to the Russian embassy in the Afghan capital (Kabil) resulted in deaths and injuries, including two embassy employees.

This bombing is the first of its kind since the Taliban movement seized power in August 2021, and it also comes at a critical political time for the Afghan government and its relations with Russia.

Security sources told Al Jazeera Net that a suicide bomber managed to reach the main gate of the embassy, ​​and detonated his explosive belt among people who came to receive their passports, most of whom were students who received scholarships in Russian universities.

The source added that among the dead was an official in the Afghan forces.


out of conflict

Foreign embassies have been out of the conflict between the Afghan government and the Taliban for the past two decades, and have rarely been targeted.

During the presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan, only 4 foreign embassies were attacked:

  • In 2015, the Taliban targeted the Spanish embassy with a car bomb, which led to the death of its guard.

  • In 2017, the German embassy was targeted in the Green Zone, and this led to the killing of more than 90 people and severe damage to its building and the buildings of the embassies of India and Iraq.

The Russian embassy in Kabul is one of the consular headquarters that has not stopped its activities in Afghanistan since the withdrawal of Soviet forces from the country in 1989, and their diplomatic corps remained at the ambassador level after the withdrawal of US forces and the Taliban's rise to power last year.

The activity of the Russian embassy in Kabul strengthened the relations between the Taliban and Russia, to the extent that Russia handed over the Afghan embassy in Moscow to the Afghan government led by the movement.

Abdul Salam Hanafi, Deputy Prime Minister of Afghanistan, during a conference on Afghanistan in the capital, Moscow. He fears that the embassy bombing will cast a shadow over the relations between the Taliban and Russia (French)

critical timing

The targeting of the Russian embassy came at a critical time for the Afghan government and Russia;

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov received his Tajik counterpart Sirajuddin Mehr in Moscow to discuss the field and security situation in its southern neighbor Afghanistan.

The targeting of the Russian embassy is the first of its kind since the Taliban came to power, and it is not possible to immediately confirm the identity of the perpetrators and those who wish to target Russian interests in Afghanistan.

"The targeting of the embassy is an attempt to drag Russia, which is preoccupied in Ukraine and Syria, to a new arena of conflict in Afghanistan and near its military bases in Tajikistan," said Tariq Farhadi, a researcher in political and strategic affairs.

Farhadi said, in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, that the previous statements of the Russian Defense Minister and other officials about the "fragile security situation in Afghanistan due to ISIS activity" did not come out of nowhere.

Two injured receive treatment in a hospital in Kabul after the bombing of the Russian embassy (Reuters)

strong hit

The new Afghan government did not expect that it would come to targeting the Russian embassy, ​​because it assigned its elements to secure and guard all foreign embassies and diplomatic missions in Kabul.

The Afghan interior and foreign ministers frequently talked about providing necessary protection for embassies.

But after the assassination of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in an American raid on his home in central Kabul in late August, and the targeting of the Russian embassy today, Monday in a suicide attack, security experts believe that the Taliban has received a strong blow in the fact that it is able to implement the promises it made to the United States and the international community in the Doha Agreement.

A security source tells Al Jazeera Net, "The new Afghan government has lost the confidence of foreign embassies and diplomatic missions in Kabul, because the arrival of a suicide bomber at the entrance to the embassy is evidence of a major security breach."

According to the source, the Afghan forces need extensive training to deal with these cases, "and the Taliban today suffers from a security breach as the previous government suffered, after its opponents managed to infiltrate its ranks."


international isolation

The Taliban have been trying, since they came to power, to persuade diplomatic missions to resume their work and open their embassies, but they have not succeeded because of the US administration's position on the government it formed.

Only about 15 foreign embassies remained in Kabul, without their countries recognizing the new Afghan government.

Researcher and political analyst Hikmat Jalil says that the Afghan Foreign Ministry is counting on the work of these embassies and exploiting their presence to communicate with the outside world, but today's bombing will prompt a number of countries to close their embassies or at least reduce the number of their employees.

Jalil believes, in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, that the party that targeted the Russian embassy today is seeking to keep the new Afghan government in complete isolation, and that the international community should not consider opening embassies for it in Afghanistan, and thus preventing the Taliban from obtaining international recognition and financial aid.

Since the Taliban's return to power last year, the rate of violence has declined significantly, but the targeting of the Russian embassy and the bombing of a mosque in Herat, in the west of the country, a few days ago, came to prove the opposite reality.

A former security source told Al Jazeera Net, "The return of violence in this way calls into question the ability of the new government to confront it, especially with the opposition to the Taliban being able to choose their targets in different parts of the country."